Many aircraft include one or more gas turbine engines. The gas turbine engines may be used to provide propulsion, electrical power, and/or bleed air. In efforts to reduce the cost and weight of aircraft gas turbine engines, there recently has been a drive toward high-work turbine stages. The airfoils in high-work turbine stages typically operate in transonic conditions. That is, the airfoils typically operate in conditions where the Mach number in the relative frame of the airfoil exceeds 1.0 over some portion of the airfoil surface.
When turbine airfoils operate in transonic conditions, shock waves may be generated at the trailing edge of the airfoils. The generated shock waves may propagate downstream and cause unsteady pressure variations on downstream airfoils and/or flow angle variations at the inlet to downstream airfoils. These unsteady pressure variations and flow angle variations can adversely impact both the performance and the mechanical integrity of the affected airfoils.
Hence, there is a need for a design process for transonic airfoils that minimizes unsteady pressure variations on downstream airfoils and/or flow angle variations at the inlet to downstream airfoils that result from trailing edge shocks. The present invention addresses at least this need.